UKOG shares rise as it gets ready to start drilling at Gatwick Gusher site

UK Oil & Gas Investments (UKOG) said it has been awarded flow testing, oil storage and further drilling permits for work at its Horse Hill licence.

The Environment Agency has granted permits for Horse Hill Developments, which operates the site, to carry out extended flow tests, store any produced oil and drill and test a side-track from the existing well and a new borehole.

Shares jumped 2.67 per cent at the open.

The company made an application for long term production testing and further appraisal drilling to Surrey County Council in October 2016, with a decision to be made at the council's planning committee meeting on 18 October.

Members of the planning committee completed a scheduled visit to the Horse Hill site yesterday, in preparation for the October meeting, and UKOG said it "therefore envisages that these operations will commence in the fourth quarter of 2017 upon grant of the necessary remaining regulatory permissions".

The oil discovery in question was nicknamed the "Gatwick Gusher" when it was first unveiled by UKOG in 2015, being located around 3 km north of the south London airport. At the time, the Aim-listed company said the Horse Hill site could contain up to 100bn barrels of black gold, far outstripping the resources in the North Sea.

"We look forward to a successful planning outcome and the resumption of operations at Horse Hill," said UKOG chairman Stephen Sanderson.

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